The people on television
In all its dummitude
Notice at about 20 seconds when he says “They’re eating the cats” Harris simply bursts out laughing, which enrages Trump such that he amps up the scowl and the snarl and the ragey shouting, which makes Harris laugh even harder for a second or two.
Then the news guy breaks in to say we talked to the city manager and he said there have been no specific claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused by individuals within the immigrant communniny and Trump squawks “Wull I’ve seen people on television!” He actually does actually say that.
It’s as if someone discovered a way to inflate a toddler to the size of a very large man and that toddler somehow got nominated for president.
“The people on television say ‘my dog was taken and used for food’ so maybe he said that and maybe that’s a good thing to say for a city manager but The People On Television say their dog was eaten by…the people that went there.” He said that. With his own mouth. He has the brain of a five-year-old in a huge angry body.
It’s like Jethro Bodine: “I know it’s true, Uncle Jed, I read it in a book!” (For those of you not up on mid-twentieth century American television – The Beverly Hillbillies).
Since Trump is a Baby Boomer, he updated to TV; the younger generations often tell me they saw it on Wikipedia, or somewhere else on the internet.
No sign of critical thinking.
And yet, 50% of the population +/- is STILL voting for this man. What does that say about the electorate? “You never hear me complain about politicuans…but where do these politicians come from?…American homes, American families…Maybe the problem is the people. F$&@& the people”. George Carlin (RIC) (crankiness)
Vice President Harris definitely won the reaction game last night. Watching Trump speak, laughing, scoffing, shaking her head, while Trump mostly scowled into the camera like an orange Grinch.
And she framed the debate from the very beginning like a good prosecutor, telling the jury what to look for. “You’re going to hear from the same old playbook, a bunch of lies, grievances, and name calling.” And then baited him into exactly that.
“Since Trump is a Baby Boomer…”
Interesting. He is a Baby Boomer, but just barely, born in the first year that is tagged with that label. Joe Biden is not a Baby Boomer; he was born at the tail end of the Silent Generation.
That pitying look she gives him toward the end is priceless!
Brian M — “You’ve got to remember that these are just simple farmers. These are people of the land. The common clay of the New West. You know, morons.” — “Jim”, Blazing Saddles
@iknklast, Sackbut,
Of course the Vice President is also a boomer, but at the other tail. As a boomer who’s just a little older than her, I dislike this whole business of defining generations. People my age don’t remember President Kennedy, or his brother Bobby (the first president I remember is Nixon), we never had to worry about the draft, and the music of our high school years was either disco or new age/punk. We really don’t have many experiences in common with people who were born in 1946, but we’re plunked in there all the same.
@WaM
I share your dislike of the constant use of generational labels. Most especially, I dislike the use of “boomer” simply to mean “older people”, or perhaps “people over 60”. There are people born before 1946, and people have this inconvenient habit of continuing to age, so the currently young-ish labeled generations will be “older people” soon enough. There are good reasons to create arbitrary demographic age bands for statistical analysis, but the terms get grossly overused.
I commented at #4 because I only just now realized that Trump is barely a boomer and Biden is not one; I bet some people who use “boomer” indiscriminately would find that surprising. And Harris is barely a boomer, as you note. Interesting that the two candidates are from the first and last years of the labeled “Baby Boom” generation.
Re your other point, some demographers divide the Baby Boom generation into “Early Boomers” or “Leading-Edge Boomers” (born 1946-55) and “Generation Jones” (born 1956-1965).
WaM, I am a late boomer, but I find I actually do share a lot in common with the rest of the generation. I share almost nothing in common with the later generations, because…well, just because, I guess.
I do think there is a reason to define the boomer generation, because it is important in population demographics, and it is defined by the increase in fecundity and reproduction. For some reason, after that it became common to name generations, and label them, but I resist any effort to remove the label baby boomer because I do a lot of population demographics and know that the boomer generation is crucial in understanding what we are facing now.
A lot of people think my husband was too much older than me; he isn’t, because we don’t think so. But for people that insist, I point out that we were born under the same president. He was born the first year of the Eisenhower presidency, and I was born the last year. For some reason, that shuts people up, so I keep on using it.
Watching this clip I was reminded of two things. First was the old news program interview of a young black man (Antoine Dodson) warning the neighborhood about a suspected rapist: it went viral when someone set it to music.
https://youtu.be/hMtZfW2z9dw?si=DWJLSJatb3bPay_I
Trump and the dog-eaters clearly calls for similar treatment.
I also remember that scene in Annie Hall where Woody Allen is followed around by a couple guys who just can’t get over the fact that “this guy here has been on television — TELEVISION! THE TV!!” Perhaps the “two men named Cheech “ are Trump’s target audience.
What youngsters you both are! Roosevelt was president when I was born;
Well my birthday newspaper mentions Reagan’s “Star Wars” nonsense so…
Late boomer here.
Sometimes in discussions of age, depending on the particulars of the situation, I say that I was 5 when Apollo 11 landed on the moon.